[Polpolion]

What's up with the ranks in BSG? They have ensign, which leads me to believe that they're using naval ranks, but then they have Colonel tigh, which would be air force, given context. And then "Commander" Adama gets promoted straight to Admiral. WTH? He skipped like 5 ranks! Did they make up their own rank system, or something? Or does the fleet just have a strange amalgamation of officers from different services branches?

[Herra Tohtori]

Colonial Navy seems to be some kind of mish-mash of navy, air force (or naval aviation, whichever floats their boats) and marines I guess.

Officer ranks that we know of:

Admiral (ranks? seniority?)
???
Commander
Colonel
Major
Captain
Lieutenant

Any more?

Then there are of course various NCO and crewmember ranks that are a bit hard to set in any meaningful order, since there are sergeants, specialists, chief petty officers and who knows what amongst the ragtag fleet.

It's also interesting to notice that the rank of Colonel is actually higher than that of Commander respectively, though they are used in different branches of military, but in nBSG, Colonel Tigh is outranked by Commander Adama, and it's not just that he's the CO and Tigh is XO.

Also I found that Roslin promoting Adama to admiral in order to avoid future conclicts in chain of command was a bit futile - seniority between admirals Adama and Cain would have been for Cain anyway, so unless she promoted Adama to Fleet Admiral or Grand Admiral or whatever, it wouldn't have made a difference... technically anyway. Also, it seems to me that President of the Colonies is not in fact commander-in-chief of the Colonial Military, at least based on how Adama grabs the military matters under his jurisdiction pretty early in the show regardless of the fact that Roslin is legally the acting president of the Colonies, or what remains of them...

[Shade]

It does seem hard to make sense of.

It may be that there are actually two rank systems at work here, for flight officers and naval officers, but that they're consecutive rather than parrallel, so that when you're old and high-ranking enough (or if your father is an admiral and needs a commander he can trust), you get promoted out of your viper and into command of a capital ship. The colonel being in there as a bridge officer does seem odd, but perhaps the XO on a battlestar can sometimes be from the other branch. In fact, now that I think of it, if this was in fact the system, it would make perfect sense for the highest flight officer rank to spend some time as an XO to get the hang of running a ship before getting his promotion to commander.

[karajorma]

Also, it seems to me that President of the Colonies is not in fact commander-in-chief of the Colonial Military, at least based on how Adama grabs the military matters under his jurisdiction pretty early in the show regardless of the fact that Roslin is legally the acting president of the Colonies, or what remains of them...

I've always seen that more as a deal between Adama and Roslin to prevent him simply declaring Martial Law (Which he could easily have justified given the circumstances). In return for Roslin not exercising her position as commander in chief Adama recognised her presidency as legitimate.

[General Battuta]

Also, it seems to me that President of the Colonies is not in fact commander-in-chief of the Colonial Military, at least based on how Adama grabs the military matters under his jurisdiction pretty early in the show regardless of the fact that Roslin is legally the acting president of the Colonies, or what remains of them...

I've always seen that more as a deal between Adama and Roslin to prevent him simply declaring Martial Law (Which he could easily have justified given the circumstances). In return for Roslin not exercising her position as commander in chief Adama recognised her presidency as legitimate.

I concur with this.

The screwed-up rank system is actually an allusion to the original show, which mixed army and naval ranks. That's why Colonel is below Commander.

At least they don't call enlisted men and women 'warriors' any more.

[colecampbell666]

Adama is an Admiral because that is the minimum rank that a person in control of two Battlestars can have. Those are Roslin's words, not mine. Also, I believe that it may be an amalgamation of air-force and navy rankings, they have planes as well as ships, and old-time ship captains could have migrated to Battlestars when the time came, with pilots hopping into Vipers. (inb4 aircraft carrier)

[terran_emperor]

Stolen from Battlestar Wiki (i've cut out some of the names i didnt recognize

Colonial Fleet Ranks

Flag Officer
Admiral         - Nagala, Peter Corman
Rear Admiral  - Helena Cain, William Adama (S2.5+)

Senior Commissioned Officer
Commander          - William Adama (Mini-S2.5), Jack Fisk (S2.5), Lee Adama (S2.5 - S3.0)
Colonel                - Saul Tigh,
Lieutenant Colonel - Jack Fisk (Razor)

Junior Commissioned Officer
Major                - Doctor Cottle, Lee Adama (S3+)
Captain             -  Lee Adama (Mini-S2.5), Kara Thrace (S2.5+), Aaron Kelly, Karl Agathon (S3+)
Lieutenant          - Kara Thrace (Mini-S2.5), Karl Agathon (Mini-S2), Louanne "Kat" Katraine (S1-S2)
Junior Lieutenant - [aka Lieutenant JG] - Sharon Valeri (Mini-S1 Finale), Sharon Agathon (S3+), Felix Gaeta (Mini+), Anastasia Dualla (S2+)
Ensign               - Diana Seelix (S3+), Karl Anders (S4+)

Senior Enlisted (NCOs)
Master Chief Petty Officer - no example yet to my knowledge
Senior Chief Petty Officer  - No example yet
Chief Petty Officer           - Galen Tyrol
Petty Officer 1st Class     - No example yet
Petty officer 2nd Class     - Cally Henderson (S3-S4), Anastasia Dualla (Mini-S2)

Junior Enlisted
Specialist - Cally Henderson (Mini-S3)
Crewman - [aka Deck Hand] No example yet
Recuit     - no example yet

Colonial Marine Corps

Officer
*Unestablished with 1 exception*
Lieutenant - Unnamed - Seen in Escape Velocity (S4) escorting Lee Adama

Senior Enlisted (NCOs)
Sergeant Major      - Socrata Trace [Kara's Mother] (Retired)
Master Sergeant    - No example yet
Gunnery Sergeant  - Erin Mathias (Exodus I - The Road Less Travelled)
Sergeant 1st Class - Hadrian [Galactica's Master-at-Arms (Seen: Acts of Contrition, Litmus. Mentioned: Water, Valley of Darkness)
Sergeant              - Brandy Hardner (Resistance - Revelations (so far))

Junior Enlisted
Corporal             - Venner (Scattered [the Gemanon Marine who guards Roslin] - Taking a Break From all your Worries)
Private 1st Class - Scott Kelso (Final Cut)
Private              - Sykes (Rapture)

---
Hope that helps

And given its Relevence, this Thread should be moved to the Diaspora Board.

[NGTM-1R]

I seem to remember something about Socinus being named as something not on the list, though it could have been "specialist"...

[terran_emperor]

according to Battlestar wiki he was ranked as "specialist"

[Polpolion]

That's still funny.

Should be more like this:

Colonial Fleet Ranks

Flag Officer
Admiral         - Nagala, Peter Corman
Rear Admiral  - Helena Cain, William Adama (S2.5+)

Senior Commissioned Officer
Commander          - William Adama (Mini-S2.5), Jack Fisk (S2.5), Lee Adama (S2.5 - S3.0)
Colonel                - Saul Tigh,
Lieutenant Colonel - Jack Fisk (Razor)

Junior Commissioned Officer
Major                - Doctor Cottle, Lee Adama (S3+)
Captain             -  Lee Adama (Mini-S2.5), Kara Thrace (S2.5+), Aaron Kelly, Karl Agathon (S3+)
Lieutenant          - Kara Thrace (Mini-S2.5), Karl Agathon (Mini-S2), Louanne "Kat" Katraine (S1-S2)
Junior Lieutenant - [aka Lieutenant JG] - Sharon Valeri (Mini-S1 Finale), Sharon Agathon (S3+), Felix Gaeta (Mini+), Anastasia Dualla (S2+)
Ensign               - Diana Seelix (S3+), Karl Anders (S4+)

Senior NCO
Master Chief Petty Officer - no example yet to my knowledge
Senior Chief Petty Officer  - No example yet
Chief Petty Officer           - Galen Tyrol
Petty Officer 1st Class     - No example yet
Petty officer 2nd Class     - Cally Henderson (S3-S4), Anastasia Dualla (Mini-S2)

Junior NCO Enlisted Men and Women
Specialist - Cally Henderson (Mini-S3)
Crewman - [aka Deck Hand] No example yet
Recuit     - no example yet

Colonial Marine Corps

Officer
*Unestablished with 1 exception*
Lieutenant - Unnamed - Seen in Escape Velocity (S4) escorting Lee Adama

Senior NCO
Sergeant Major      - Socrata Trace [Kara's Mother] (Retired)
Master Sergeant    - No example yet
Gunnery Sergeant  - Erin Mathias (Exodus I - The Road Less Travelled)
Sergeant 1st Class - Hadrian [Galactica's Master-at-Arms (Seen: Acts of Contrition, Litmus. Mentioned: Water, Valley of Darkness)
Sergeant              - Brandy Hardner (Resistance - Revelations (so far))
Corporal             - Venner (Scattered [the Gemanon Marine who guards Roslin] - Taking a Break From all your Worries)

Junior NCO Enlisted Soldiers
Corporal             - Venner (Scattered [the Gemanon Marine who guards Roslin] - Taking a Break From all your Worries)
Private 1st Class - Scott Kelso (Final Cut)
Private              - Sykes (Rapture)

And I've noticed that every single pilot is an officer. Aren't most pilots now warrant officers, or is that system just in evaluation right now? Most pilots are wanted for their expertise and skill as a pilot, not their expertise and skill as a leader.

[terran_emperor]

Whoops fixed.

But Corporal stays where it is.

As I said, the info is sourced from Battlestar Wiki, and according to that, Corporal is a Junior Enlisted rank

[karajorma]

And given its Relevence, this Thread should be moved to the Diaspora Board.

Not really. We don't automatically move any Star Wars thread to the FotG board so why should BSG be treated that way? It's up to the topic starter really.